"A 2009 article in the UK Telegraph entitled 'Bullets in the brain, shrapnel in the spine: the terrible injuries suffered by children of Gaza,' investigated a situation in which doctors at a hospital near Gaza were 'almost overwhelmed by the number of Palestinian children needing treatment for bullet wounds to their heads.'/2/

"The article began: 'On just one day last week staff at the El-Arish hospital in Sinai were called to perform sophisticated CAT brain scans on a nine-year-old, two 10-year-olds and a 14-year-old &#8211; each of whom had a bullet still lodged in their brain, after coming under fire during the Israeli ground assault on Gaza.&#8221;

"Asked about the nature of these shootings, a physician replied:

&#8220;'I can't precisely decide whether these children are being shot at as a target, but in some cases the bullet comes from the front of the head and goes towards the back, so I think the gun has been directly pointed at the child.'"

From its inception in 2002, the Initiative deeply divided the organization.[8] As stated before, members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, committed the Passover Massacre on same day as the peace Initiative's adoption.[3] At that time, Hamas rejected not only peace with Israel but even negotiations with it.[18] The official administration of Hamas never recognized the Initiative, which alienated it from members of the Arab League, especially Jordan and Egypt.[47] One of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' conditions of forming a national coalition government with Hamas after the 2006 election was that Hamas had to recognize the Initiative, but he was unsuccessful.[47]

Hamas' spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab told The San Francisco Chronicle in April 2002 that the organization would accept it, saying "That would be satisfactory for all Palestinian military groups to stop and build our state, to be busy in our own affairs, and have good neighborhood with Israelis."[48] The newspaper reporters who interviewed Shanab questioned whether or not he truly spoke for the administration and could not corroborate his story.[48] Hamas' foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said in June 2006 that the organization rejects the initiative.[8] Prime Minister Ismail Haneya said on October 2006 that the "problem with the Arab peace initiative is that it includes recognition of the state of Israel, the thing that the Palestinian government rejects" and dismissed it.[49] That month, Mahmoud al-Zahar declared unequivocally: "Hamas will never change its position regardless of the pressure's intensity" and "We will never recognize the Arab initiative."[50]

After the revival of the initiative in March 2007, Hamas continued a policy of ambiguity with many officials giving negative responses while some gave neutral or hopeful responses.[26] Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told Haaretz that "the issue is not a 'yes' or 'no' by Hamas regarding the initiative. We respect the Arab efforts to attain Palestinian rights and we will act within the Arab consensus. Nonetheless, the Zionist enemy continues to reject the initiative and we will not determine our position in reference to it before it has been accepted."[26] Haaretz sources in Palestine state that Hamas wanted to oppose the initiative outright but did not do so because it did not want to break with the Saudi Arabian government.[26] Hamas figure Khaled Meshaal ridiculed the PLO pro-initiative ad campaign, saying &#8220;The rights of Palestinians can be achieved only through resistance, not advertisements&#8221;.[17]

Time stated in January 2009 that "In the Arab world, only Hamas and Hizballah, with the backing of Tehran, reject the Arab peace initiative." Left-wing Israeli commentator and former Minister of Justice Yossi Beilin also said in January 2009 that "Hamas considers its adherence to the three "nos" of Khartoum from 1967, which the entire Arab world abandoned in adopting the Arab peace initiative, to be its primary distinctive feature Fateh. Even a prolonged battering by the IDF will not bring Hamas to make this change." The Khaleej Times editorialized in December 2008 that "The Arab peace plan remains the best and most pragmatic solution to Palestine-Israel conflict.... Even though Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not prepared to accept anything short of the entire Palestine occupied in 1940s, if the plan is accepted by Israel and US, the Arabs could possibly persuade Islamists to embrace it too."

Echoing the Arab rejection of peace with Israel expressed at Khartoum almost exactly 42 years ago (&#8220;no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel&#8221, the Palestinians declared at the Fatah conference in Bethlehem in August 2009 three noes: no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and no end to the armed struggle against Israel.

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In fact, in addition to the three noes to peace, the Palestinians had more than a dozen other demands, including Israeli acceptance of the &#8220;right of return&#8221; of Palestinian refugees, the release of all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, the freezing of all settlement construction and the lifting of the Gaza blockade. They also vowed to continue the struggle against Israel &#8220;until Jerusalem returns to the Palestinians void of settlers and settlements. &#8221;

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